পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৪১৫

383 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড A pencil flick, a man 'disposed' Touring Dacca on April 15 I found the heads of four students lying rotting on the roof of the Iqbal Hall hostel. The caretaker said they had been killed on the night of March 25. I also found heavy traces of blood on the two staircases and in four of the rooms. Behind Iqbal Hall a large residential building seemed to have been singled out for special attention by the army. The walls were pitted with bullet holes and a foul smell still lingered on the staircase, although it had been heavily powdered with DDT. Neighbors said the bodies of 23 women and children had been carted away only hours before. They had been decomposing on the roof since March 25. It was only after much questioning that I was able to ascertain that the victims belonged to the near-by Hindu shanties. They had sought shelter in the building as the army closed in. This is Genocide conducted with amazing casualness. Sitting in the office of Major Agha, Martial Law Administrator of Comilla City, on the morning of April 19, I saw the offhand manner in which sentences were meted out. A Bihari sub-inspector of police had walked in with a list of prisoners being held in the police lock-up. Agha looked it over. Then, with a flick of his pencil, he casually ticked off four names on the list. "Bring these four to me this evening for disposal," he said. He look at the list again. The pencil flicked once more."... and bring this thief along with them." The death sentence had been pronounced over a glass of coconut milk. I was informed that two of the prisoners were Hindus, the third a 'student,' and the fourth an Awami league organizer. The "thief," it transpired, was a lad named Sebastian who had been caught moving the household effects of a Hindu friend to his own house. Later that evening I saw these men, their hands and legs tied loosely with a single rope, being led down the road to the Circuit House compound. A little after curfew, which was at 6 o'clock, a flock of squawking mynah birds were disturbed in their play by the thwacking sound of wooden clubs meeting bone and flesh. Captain Azmat of the Baluch Regiment had two claims to fame according to the mess banter. One was his job as ADC to Major-Gen. Shaukat Raza, commanding officer of the 9th Division. The other was thrust on him by his colleagues' ragging. Azmat, it transpired, was the only officer in the group who had not made a "kill." Major Bashir needled him mercilessly. "Come on Azmat," Bashir told him one night, "we are going to make a man of you. Tomorrow we will see how you can make them run. It's so easy." To underscore the point Bashir went into one of his long spiels. Apart from his duties as SSO, Bashir was also "education officer" at Headquarters. He was the only Punjabi officer I found who could speak Bengali fluently. By general agreement Bashir was also a self taught bore who gloried in the sound of his own voice. A dhari walla (bearded man), we were told, had come to see Bashir that morning to inquire about his brother, a prominent Awami League organizer of Comilla who had been netted by the army some days earlier. Dhor gaya, Bashir said he told him: "he has run